This June, Mountain Rose River Project volunteers will once again get their hands dirty planting, weeding, and harvesting at the Friends of Buford Park & Mount Pisgah’s Native Plant Nursery. The Friends are a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and enhance native ecosystems and compatible recreation in the Mt. Pisgah area, a treasured 4,700 acre natural area bordering metropolitan Eugene, Oregon.
Buford Park and the greater Mount Pisgah area are recognized for providing rare floodplain, prairie, and oak habitats. The Friends have advocated for and participated in 1,700 acres of land acquisitions and they are actively restoring 1,300 acres including river channels, floodplain forests, wetlands, rare prairies, and oak savanna habitats.
Since 2003, the Friends have operated the Native Plant Nursery at Buford Park to provide a diversity of native trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers—especially seed—to restore these precious habitats, rehabilitate trails, and increase the park's beauty for people to enjoy. The two-acre nursery has approximately 100 native species, including grasses and wildflowers that form the base of the ecological food chain. These native species are rarely if ever available commercially in sufficient quantities. Propagating their own plants from ethically wild-collected sources protects the genetic diversity of Mount Pisgah’s botanical treasures.
In addition to their volunteer hours, Mountain Rose Herbs supports the nursery by financially sponsoring three different plots of native species: nettle, yarrow, and trillium. The trillium plot is blooming right now with its namesake, three-petaled, white flowers!
Shawn Donnille, co-owner of Mountain Rose Herbs, shares a bit about the significance of helping guard and care for the Trillium plant...
“Trillium, also known as Beth root, is not only a beautiful spring flower, it is an important medicinal plant. It is considered at risk by the United Plant Savers, and therefore, wild collection is not currently sustainable. Mountain Rose Herbs sponsors the Trillium plot at the Friends’ Native Plant Nursery to help protect and enhance the habitat for this species and increase its abundance in the wild throughout the Mount Pisgah area.”
This spring and summer, volunteers will collect trillium seed and seedlings from the plot and plant them in selected floodplain forest habitats throughout the greater Mount Pisgah area where they will increase over time. We just can’t wait to watch them grow!
Anyone can sponsor a plot! To participate in the Friends’ plot sponsorship program or otherwise support our work, contact development@bufordpark.org.
To volunteer, contact volunteer@bufordpark.org.
Learn more about the Friends at www.bufordpark.org!